Mistake 1: Bad Titles
Meta tag titles are the first thing spiders see when they search a website, so ensure that your titles are composed correctly. Place your keywords in the title, but don’t go over the top. A good example of a title is “Perth WA building construction, building and constructing residential homes – John Smith Builders.”
Mistake 2: Bad Content
Websites with predictable content will always perform poorly on search engines. For example, pre-written “how to” articles are often useless because several other websites may also have them. Also avoid copying and pasting content from other websites. Tempting as it may be, most search engines will penalize you for this and your ranking will suffer. Equally, avoid leaving the same content on your website for too long – search engines are more attracted to content that is updated frequently.
All in all, ensure your content is original, useful, readable and dynamic.
Mistake 3: No Incoming Links
Incoming links are links leading into your website from other websites. Websites that don’t have them miss out on the opportunity to rank higher with search engines.
Mistake 4: Poor Incoming Links
It isn’t enough have an incoming link. If the link is bad, your ranking will suffer. A good link is one that has keywords, titles and outgoing links that relate to your subject matter. Also try to match your keywords with the incoming link, and always have your keywords placed in the anchor text.
Mistake 5: Poor Internal Linking
This is easier to rectify because you can control your own internal web links. Ensure that you match the title, content and anchor text with the keywords of the linked page.
Mistake 6: Overusing Keywords
If you have a tax accounting website, don’t just use the words “tax accounting” written 50 times on the page. Search engines are much smarter these days and they’re aware of keyword manipulation. Let the keywords flow with the content. A specific keyword shouldn’t appear more than once in a paragraph.
Mistake 7: Choosing the wrong keywords
Owners of a real estate agency in Perth WA might think that the keywords “Real Estate Perth WA” are the absolute best for their company. However, it would be better for that agency to be more specific with the company’s location and service. For example, a better keyword phrase would be, “Property Management Perth WA Applecross.”
Mistake 8: Not Blogging
This is a no-brainer and a tool that more and more websites are using. Blogs are absolute search magnets because:
- Search Engine’s are attracted to fresh content and keyword-based links.
- Blogs present content that is easy to read and easy to index.
- The titles in blogs are easily picked up by search engine crawlers.
Mistake 9: Linking to bad sites
Quite simply, don’t do this. Linking to sites that are banned, unrelated, have a low ranking or are full of advertisements and spam are a sure way to drop your rankings. You could even be penalized yourself.
Mistake 10: Getting Cocky
Some SEO “gurus” reach a point where they think they know everything about SEO. This is a sure way to lose site rankings. Why? Search engine rules are always changing and something that worked some time ago may not work now. For example, in 1998 simply placing keywords numerous times on one page would have earned you site ranking. These days, you will probably get penalized by search engines for keyword manipulation.
Search Engine rules and trends are constantly changing. Webmasters should stay updated on the latest SEO developments and continue working hard to maintain or improve their position.
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